Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-04-30
THE SOIL ABOUT GRIDLEY.
Its Peculiar Quality and the Cause of Its
Wonderful Productiveness.

Wonderful Productiveness.
The soil upon which Gridley is located
and Immediately surrounded is without
doubt the best agricultural land for all
purposes-grain, vegetables and fruit trees,
in the State. That which is known as the
live-oak land extends in a direction north
and south about eight miles and east and
west six miles having an area of about so
square miles, or $4,000 acres. The soil is
a sandy loan mixed with small, fine gravel.
and with an abundance of fine argillaceous
clay, but not enough to make it sticky and
muddy. The presence of mica in abun-
dance shows it to be of granite origin,
and an examination shows it to con-
tain an abundance of humus caused by
the decomposition of the leaves, woods
grasses, etc, with which it was SO
dition. 1t is chocolate in color, being con-
siderably darker than the contiguous red
lands, and from which it differs very
materially, being much coarser. When in
right condition it plows splendidly, being
very friable and falling from the mold
board of the pillow in fine condition. Its
coarseness makes it peculiarly adapted for
all kinds of trees, as the original growth
testifes, and the presence of clay in such
abundance makes it one of the best grain
growing sections in the State Its coarse
ness permits the water to sink rapidly
away after the heaviest rains, and the
sand, small gravel and mica rapidly alb
sorbing the suns heat rays, makes it, we
believe,
THE .wARMEsT AND EARLIEST SECTION
For fruit and vegetables in the State.
Wheat in many places at the present time
is headed out, ard all the vegetables show
a growth advanced from a month to six
weeks over any other section we have Wis
tied. Notwithstanding that it has been
continually cropped with grain in many
places for the last ten years, no diminution
of the yield has as yet been observed
This cannot be said of many sections, even
the bottom lands, supposed to be prac-
tically inexhaustible, showing deteriora-
ton after the lapse of years. The coarse
ness and porosity of the soil gives ample
opportunity for the roots of both trees and
vines TO search over a large area for their
necessary food, and at the same time an
of wind which might blow.
The native vegetation would indicate all
this, for in its original state the whole
country was so thickly covered with live
oak brush and large trees as 10 be prac-
tically impenetrable. Fruit trees, wher-
ever planted, show magnificent growth,
and in one orchard of ten acres which we
were shown not one tree had failed. The
trees all have an extremely healthy APP
pearance, not a sign of scale having ever
been discovered in this locality, and no
lichens or moses to disfgure or iniure the
bark of the trunks and limbs of the trees,
Its immunity from late frosts is also owing
to the popularity of its soil as well as its
geographical position. Being so porous
that the water SINKS rapidly to its
sUBTERRANEAS DRAINAGE.
And not cooled by evaporation like heavier
clay soils, and its sandy and gavelly par
ticies absorbing as they do the heat of the
sun and atmosphere during the DAYTIME,
and then radiating the same slowly back
during the night, prevents the formation
OF frost 1T the surface of the ground, even
though the superintendent atmosphere
may have reached that degree of cold 1t
is well known that frost never forms
while the atmosphere is in mo
ton, only wheE il is calm, and
that the heat radiated from the
soil rises, which, passing upward
through the branches and foliage
Of both trees and vines, would prevent the
atmosphere reaching the frost temperature,
thus giving such perfect and ample natural
protection against losses from frost which
sometimes affiict even the most favored
portions of the State. Great as is its
adaptation to the growth of grain, which is
wonderful, wheat yielding on average
every year since the land has been
reduced to cultivation of thirty-fiv to
sixty bushels per acre, we believe that
trees and vines will find their natural
habitat in its soil. 1t is well known that
the reason why SO large portion of the
eartli's surface is treeless, and where the
soil is fertile and water abundant, is not
caused by any climatic conditions or lack
of distribution of the seeds, but by
THE IRREGULARITIES OF THE SOIL
The prairies of the United States, the